Currency of the Virasana Empire
Currency of the Virasana Empire is minted by the Virasana Emperor and controlled through the Imperial Chancellery. Currency, Denominations and Coinage *Imperial Creditary Unit, nicknamed 'Heron' for the symbolic representation of Agami on the back of the most commmon coin. Face of the coin usually bears the face of the Emperor under whose rule the coin was minted. *One ICU (Heron) is subdivided into ten Decas (Chicks). *One Deca (Chick) is subdivided into ten Centas (Nuggets). Minting is the monopoly of the Emperor. Coins minted range from one Heron to one Nugget in an abundance of steps. The most common coin by far is the simple Heron, followed by the single Deca and Nugget coins. Names for coins vary with location, and often historic local currencies live on, i.e. the Grebenstein ‘Groschen’ for a 10 nugget coin on former Grebenstein holdings. Depending on the prevalent level of technology on a given world, transactions above ‘a handful of herons’ are either paid by credit-card, IOU’s or the literal ‘chest of gold’. Transactions below one nugget are generally solved via barter. Prices and Purchasing Power Due to the social structure of the Empire (and part of the reason for the very same) is the vastly disparate purchasing power of the three strata. Basically, all goods produced by slaves and needed to uphold their negligible living standards (further referred to as ‘slave goods’) have become ridiculously cheap. This applies to simple food, simple housing, simple clothing. ‘Commoner goods’ encompass diverse food, general health care, diverse housing, mass-produced entertainment and clothing and some level of travel and technology. ‘Noble goods’, unsurprisingly, are over-the-top expensive, and encompass any kind of luxury items and services and any access to technology beyond, say, a cell-phone. So, for the sake of illustration, one can assume that ‘slave goods’ only cost 1/1000th of the price they would demand in an unbiased economy, while ‘noble goods’ command a thousand times the price. Please note that the differentiation between ‘noble, commoner and slave goods’ is not consciously made within the Virasana Empire, but is visible through all transactions and silently enforced by all those who sufficiently understand the mechanisms. Pricing Examples * a slave meal - 2 nuggets * a slave's outfit - 2 chicks * a dead slave - 3 herons * a commoner meal - 10 herons * a commoner outfit - 100 herons * a well bred horse - 1k herons * a decent monthly commoner salary - 2k herons * a planetary teleport, one person - 30k herons * a simple commoner house - 100k herons * a simple ground car (electric or combustion) - 30k herons * an interplanetary teleport, one person - 1m herons * a hoverglider - 20m herons * a small baronetcy - 50G herons (see note) * a small to medium spaceship - 500G herons Note: Real estate is never for sale, as real estate ownership is the exclusive prerogative of the nobility. Titles, on the other hand, while not freely traded, can occasionally be exchanged for goods and services that one could put a price tag to. Category:Economy Category:Umbrella Articles